Government and social trust vs. hotel response efficacy: A protection motivation perspective on hotel stay intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Yuchin Jerrie Hsieh; Ya-Ling Chen; Yao-Chin Wang

doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102991

Government and social trust vs. hotel response efficacy: A protection motivation perspective on hotel stay intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Int J Hosp Manag. 2021 Aug:97:102991. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102991. Epub 2021 May 31.

Authors

Yuchin Jerrie Hsieh¹, Ya-Ling Chen², Yao-Chin Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of International Hospitality and Service Innovation, Rochester Institute of Technology, 14 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.
² Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, State University of New York, Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, NY 14420, USA.
³ Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, University of Florida, FLG 186B, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Abstract

Based on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study conceptualizes a research framework to explain and examine customer intentions regarding hotel stays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 700 U.S. consumers via a crowdsourcing website in July 2020. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data for testing proposed hypotheses. The analytical results showed that the level of threat perceived by customers significantly reduced their intention to stay at a hotel. On the contrary, individual customer response efficacy significantly enhanced their intention to stay at a hotel. Additionally, both government and social trust, as well as hotel response efficacy, were found to significantly increase hotel stay intention by mediating the effects of threat perception and individual response efficacy. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to apply PMT to explain customer hotel stay intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Hotel response efficacy; Individual customer response efficacy; Intention to stay; Perceived threats; Trust.